Kailroad switch



(No Model.)

I. RANDOLPH.

RAILROAD SWITCH APPLIANCE. No. 410,332. r Patented Sept 3, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ISHAM RANDOLPH, OF ENGLEWOOD, ILLINOIS.

RAI LROAD-SWITCH APPLIANCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 410,332, dated September 3, 1889. Application filed April 29, 1889. Serial No. 308,986. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISHAM RANDOLPH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Englewood, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railroad-Switch Appliances, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improved mechanism for throwing the movable rails of rail road-switches; and my object is to provide simple positively and forcibly actingmeans for the purpose, and also to afford an attachment to the device proper to be used therewith, if desired, and in connection with a socalled wheel-detector, and which shall render the appliance a safety mechanism by informing the operator in case of a car or train being on the section of track containing the switch of that fact, and thus, besides preventing movement of the switch, also the exertion of undue force to throw the switch when it should not be thrown.

My invention consists in the general construction of myimprovement; and it also consists in details of construction and combinations of parts.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved appliance shown in its entirety, the switchbar, one end of which is connected with the throwing mechanism, being broken away; and Fig. 2 is a diagram showing my improvement applied to a switch and indicating its connection with the operating-lever and with awheel-detecton A is the bedplate supporting the switchactuating mechanism, comprising a horizontally-reciprocating bar B, confined between guides 'r and r, the first-named carrying, by preference, anti-friction rollers q, bearing against the adjacent edge of the bar B, which should have recesses, preferably concave, as

shown, toward opposite ends, as at :r, for a purpose hereinafter explained, and a togglelever 0, having the arms 19 and p pivotally connected at one end with-the sliding bar B, and joined at their other or free ends, which are provided with elongated slots 0, by a bar D, pivoted near its center to a stationary object, as the bed-plate, and having near its opposite ends studs n, which enter the elongated openings in the toggle-bars p and p.

E is the connecting-bar, which affords the connection between the switch F. and togglelever device.

By moving the bar B longitudinally in one direction it produces the disposition of the toggle-lever device indicated by the dotted representation in Fig. 1, and effects throwing of the switch by withdrawal of the connectingbar E from the position in which it is illustrated, and returning the sliding bar to the position shown returns the connecting-bar and throws the switch in the opposite direction by reproducing the disposition of the toggle-lever device illustrated by the full lines in Fig. 1, the movements of the connectingbar being positive and forcible, owing to the well-known action of the toggle-joint element of the construction. Lateral movement of the sliding bar B, due to the pivotal movement of the arms p and p from the fixed center of the pivotal bar D,,is provided for in the curved depressions w, the curves in which should each correspond with the arc of movement of the sliding bar in its reciprocating play. The elongated openings 0 allow lost motion to the bar B, so as to permit the straight portions of the bar to bear upon the friction-rollers q, and thus lock the switch.

I is a bar to be used with the bar B if my .improved appliance be employed as a safety device for operating a switch, and it is im posed on the bar B to extend longitudinally thereof, and fastened in place by headed pins m, rigidly connected with the bar B and extending through elongated slots provided in the bar I near its opposite ends, whereby a limited longitudinal movement thereof may be produced without disturbing the bar B.

The appliance is designed to be controlled and actuated from a point away from the railroad-track, as from a tower, (not shown,) containing an operating-lever G, connected with a pulley or the like, over which and other guides or pulleys, as k and z', is passed a cable H, secured at its ends directly to opposite ends of the bar B if my improved appliance be used without the safety attachment I, or to opposite ends of the bar I if the latter be employed, the appliance being located and properly fastened adjacent to the switch to be controlled. Obviously, then, by

throwing the lever G in one or the other direction, the switch will be correspondingly thrown with the positive and strong force exerted by the toggle-lever mechanism.

If the appliance be used as a safety device, the cable II should be connected, substantially as shoWn,wit-h a suitable form of wheeldetector K, such as that indicated in Fig. 2, but which is not illustrated in detail in the present connection, as such devices are well known, and that shown forms no part of my present invention. The strain upon the cable by actuating the lever G tends,without bringing into play the power of the toggle-lever mechanism, to act first upon the bar I, which, however, will not be moved it a train be on the section of track containing the switch F, owing to the impediment met by the detector K in the wheels K of the train, and thus failure on the part of the operator to move the lever, or the resistance the latter offers him, will readily indicate that the switch is not in a condition to be thrown. If the switch be clear, however, the readiness of the movement of the bar I will indicate the safe condition of the switch to be thrown, and after the limited play of the safety-bar shall have been taken up cause the throwing by its engagement with the bar B.

Though preferred, it is not absolutely nec essary that the toggle-arms p and 1) be pivoted directly together, since they will work in a satisfactory manner it pivoted at a short distance apart separately to the bar B,whereby they will be indirectly connected by the bar.

That I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a railroad-switch appliance, the combination, with a suitable supporting-base, of a reciprocating bar B and a toggle-lever device comprising arms 19 and p pivoted to the said bar, and a pivoted bar D, joining the said arms at their free ends, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a railroad-switch appliance, the coinbination of a base A, a reciprocating bar B, and a toggle-lever device comprising arms 19 and p, pivoted to the said bar and having elongated openings 0 in their free ends, and a bar D, pivoted near its center and having studs near its opposite extremities extending into the elongated openings 0, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a railroad-switch appliance, the combination of a base A, having guides r and r, a reciprocating laterally-recessed bar B, confined between the guides, and a toggle-lever device comprising piv'otally-connected arms 19 and p, pivoted to the bar B, and a bar D, pivoted near its center and joining the said arms at their free ends, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4:. In a railroad-switch appliance, the combination, with a suitable supporting-base, of a reciprocating bar B, a toggle-lever device comprising arms 13 and 19, pivoted to the said bar, and a pivoted bar D, joining the said arms at their free extremities, and a bar I, confined on the bar B and havinglimited longitudinal play thereon, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

ISHAM RANDOLPH,

In presence of J. WV. DYRENFORTH, M. J. Bownns. 

